National survey shows hunting, fishing remains important in Mississippi

Fishing is so popular in Mississippi that the state was tied in third in the percentage of citizens who fish, the USFWS said recently.

State tied for second in percentage of hunters, third in percentage of anglers, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service finds.

Hunting, fishing and other wildlife-related activities remain important to Mississippi’s economy and quality of life, according to preliminary results of a national survey released Wednesday (Sept. 12) by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.

Sportsmen, anglers and wildlife-watchers spent more than $2.6 billion in Mississippi in 2011, up from about $950 million in 2006 when the previous survey was conducted. The federal survey is conducted every five years. Taxable at 7 percent, that means the state received $184 million in its general fund in 2011. Most of it is considered pure profit, since no general fund monies are received by the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks for its wildlife and fisheries programs.

Mississippi’s participation rates rank extremely high in the country, with it tying for second in the nation in the highest percentage of population that hunts — 20 percent — and tied for third in percentage that fishes — 27 percent.

Those numbers are well above the national average:14 percent of the nation’s population over the age of 16 fished in 2011, while just 6 percent hunted that year.

The survey indicates that 700,000 of the Mississippi’s population of 2.2 million people hunted or fished in 2011. Add in other wildlife-related activities, and the number grows to over a million (or 46 percent of the total population).

Counting non-residents (whose expenditures were counted in the revenue totals), 651,000 people fished and 483,000 hunted in Mississippi in 2011.

In Mississippi, sportsmen spent nearly an equal amount of days hunting as they did fishing. The survey indicates that anglers spent 9.176 million days fishing, including 8.5 million by state residents.

Hunters spent 9.105 million days hunting, including 8.5 million by state residents.

On the national level, expenditures totaled $145 billion, or 1 percent of the gross domestic product. Of that total, $90 billion was spent on hunting or fishing, while $55 billion was spent on other wildlife-related (i.e. wildlife watching) activities.

Nationally, there was an 11-percent increase in anglers from 2006 to 2011, and the USF&WS said anything over 5 percent is considered statistically significant.

There was a 9-percent increase in hunting, also considered statistically significant.

According to the USF&WS, an examination of expenditures shows
that, while sportsmen are a smaller proportion of all recreationists they spend almost twice as much in total as wildlife watchers.

About two-thirds of all wildlife-related recreation expenditures have been for hunting and/or fishing in 2006 (63 percent) and 2011 (62 percent).

Click here to read the entire survey report.

About Bobby Cleveland 1343 Articles
Bobby Cleveland has covered sports in Mississippi for over 40 years. A native of Hattiesburg and graduate of the University of Southern Mississippi, Cleveland lives on Ross Barnett Reservoir near Jackson with his wife Pam.

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